Reflective Journal

Well, I thought I’d take some time away from my flash project in order to further investigate the visual essay assignment. The flash project is going well now, all my questions are up and sorted there is animation throughout as well as score keeping and final score at the end. All whats left to do now is improve the general “look” of the pages, add a facility in which the user is able to see what they got right and wrong (and the answers they should have chosen!) and also I am looking into adding an “insert user name” at the beginning which will be used for scores at the end.

But anyway, onto what I wanted to blog about. I’ve been looking at general practitioners for each three sections of the course (Moving Image, Interactive Media and Virtual Environments) and will be listing the ones I’ve found here (in order of what I’m doing first/last this year not on preference)

Interactive Media (Flash/Web)

The first practitioners I would like to discuss through the interactive media section are also ones who I will be discussing in the Virtual Environments bit too. These are: 2advanced. 2advanced are a company based in California (US) and are creating some REALLY interesting stuff. Their website (http://2advanced.com/) really shows off what this company can do within Interactive Media. The general site lay out shows that you don’t have to follow classic “rules” in order to make an easy to use yet graphically appealing website. Throughout the site you’re able to find all information you need with ease and get a feel of visiting some sort of game/film rather than a web page. I like how the site seems to push boundaries of how conventional websites are.

The second practitioners I would like to discuss are those who created the verbatim virtual fighting website IMG SRC, Inc. Kaibutsu inc. and ROXIK.  The website (http://www.verbatim.jp/senshuken/) makes use of its surroundings giving an almost 3D appearance and has a very addicting game to match.

A third to come later.

Moving Image (Film)

The first moving image practitioner I aim to discuss would be Bam Margera. I think its safe to say practically everyone has heard of Bam and knows about his work. I found CKY whilst in secondary school and a lot of his work followed. Bam has directed a few films such as Haggard and did a lot in the production of early Jackass filming. On one of his first projects CKY he did most of the editing, directing and production for videos and has even directed several of HIM’s music videos. More information on what he’s done can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0546640/. Although Moving Image may not be my favourite of subjects currently I can’t help but enjoy the idea of directing and editing music videos or skate/extreme sports videos.

The second practitioner is the quite legendary Tim Burton. Although a lot of people will no doubt be sighing at my lack of finding an unheard of practitioner I find that the most accessible practitioners, who have developed fame through their work are often those who’s work I most enjoy. The more gothic style in which he creates the scenes of his films captures a lot of the uniqueness and oddity of the world in a way that a lot of others can not.

A third to come…

Virtual Environments (3DSMAX)

The virtual environment section is where my blog comes apart somewhat. This being that aside from 2advanced I can’t really find any specific practitioners who do what I enjoy the thought of actually doing. My main thought would be doing something along the lines of 3D building design or creating prototypes for products (cars etc). Although how much work is actually around for this I haven’t a clue.